


Secrets Shared

by OffCenter



Series: Complications [1]
Category: Moonlight (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-05-29
Updated: 2008-05-29
Packaged: 2018-03-31 17:13:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3986242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OffCenter/pseuds/OffCenter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Beth has a secret</p>
            </blockquote>





	Secrets Shared

Sometimes she thinks about the changes she's gone through the past year. Not in the "Oh my god, I'm dating a vampire" way she was expecting, but in the things she's experienced and the ways they've changed her. And she wonders if it's those changes, more than simply meeting Mick, that pulled her away from Josh and his world. She really loved him – she still does – but she hadn't been "in love" for a while. She'd been carefully not noticing her changing feelings while hoping they'd change back.

A year ago would she have been the one calming down Talbot when they were kidnapped? Would she have gone to – well, not Josef, because she didn't know him yet, but to anyone and asked them to kill for her, even to protect someone else?

She can't pinpoint when the change happened, when she went from "I had a bad experience as a child, but I'm the same as everyone else, really" to accepting that she's not the same, that her world isn't the same, and that how she moves through the world will never be the same.

She wouldn't change a bit of it, though – not one terrifying second. It's brought her here, to Mick, to the two of them working together to build a relationship and learning to trust each other with their hearts.

She looks at the man – vampire – sitting close by, intent on her feet in his lap as he massages them. She loves that they can sit like this, not doing anything, both silent while they enjoy each other's company and their own thoughts. She's never had that with anyone before.

Learning to trust.

"You've done a lot to protect me," she offers.

Mick looks up, nodding, waiting for her to continue.

"I still can't believe you gave up being human."

"Yeah, well, being human's overrated." He grins at her, so much more comfortable with who he is that it amazes her. She grins back, but her smile fades.

"And you don't regret any of it, any of the things you've done, anyone you've killed to protect me?" This is something she's still working on: not guilt over Dean's death, but guilt that she feels no guilt about his death at all.

He shakes his head. "You know I don't. I'd do anything to protect you." He's smiling, but he's serious and she knows it.  
  
She thinks it should worry her, but instead she feels.... cherished. Warm and happy and safe. She hopes he'll feel the same. "I've been working up to tell you..." her voice trails off, but he doesn't push. He just smiles at her with his head tilted. "You remember Dean? The -"

"Photographer. Yeah," he cuts in, looking apprehensive. She can't meet his eyes and looks into the fire instead.

"He emailed me some photos of you getting hit by that car and then getting up and walking away. Said if he didn't get an exclusive on every story Buzzwire did, he'd expose you."

Mick growls, and she looks back, unsurprised to see him changed and radiating fury. "What's he want now that you're not there? Money? Wait, is that why you quit?"

Beth shakes her head. "No. He doesn't want anything. I …" She pauses, feeling anxious, but she takes a deep breath and continues. "I went to Josef, and he – he handled it." She watches his face, worrying her bottom lip as she waits for him to process what she's told him.

Mick stares at her, his face shifting back. "You… went to Josef. To have Dean _killed_. Just like that?"

She nods, firmly. "Just like that."

"Why?" And there it is, the same question Josef asked. Her answer is the same.

"Because you've done so much, for over two decades, to keep me safe. I wanted to do the same thing for you." And it's out there now, she couldn't take it back even if she wanted to.

He's still staring at her, but his face softens into that almost shy smile she loves, and she knows it's going to be okay.

"I _can_ take care of myself, you know."

"I know."

"Well, thank you." He's grinning now, and shaking his head. "I can't believe you did that. Did Josef give you a hard time?"

She grins back, giddy with relief, then snorts at his question. "You think Josef's capable of doing anything else? But no. He didn't, not really. I expected it, but all he did was make me face that I was asking him to kill Dean." She pauses because what she's about to say sounds foolish, even to her. "I _like_ Josef. And I...I trust him to protect you. I wouldn't trust him to protect _me_ , not unless you were the one asking, but he didn't hesitate when I told him what Dean had done."

"Yeah, he's pretty protective of anybody he cares about. And _very_ protective of our secret. But he likes you, too, especially when you won't back down from him. He doesn't get that from many people."

"Simone seems to hold her own. She's in love with him, you know." Mick raises an eyebrow at her. "She came over last week and we spent a long time talking. I think she expects that sooner or later he'll change her."

"She want him to?"

"She says not, but the way she said it? I think she really does, even if she doesn't want to want it. Or at least she's starting to want it. You think he will?"

Mick shakes his head, pulling her close. "I don't know. Sarah getting stuck did something to him. When I asked him to change me back he did, but I think he was scared. I don't think he believed I'd be okay until he saw it."

"Maybe it'll help, that it worked fine on you."

"I don't think so. He keeps claiming he didn't really turn me, he 're-turned' me. What are you doing?" he asks as she suddenly pulls his head forward and looks intently at the back of his neck.

Beth looks at him solemnly. "Seeing if it says how much the deposit is."

The look on his face is priceless, then his laughter joins hers to echo through the loft.

**Author's Note:**

>  _Secrets Shared_ is set in June 2008, a couple weeks after Sonata first aired.


End file.
